Sunday, July 28, 2013

My cyber Twin- Beth is home and that makes this the best of days! I am so happy. Relieved for certain and happy as though it were a family member which she is.

I have my oldest here with me till tomorrow morning and then the middle (teacher) boy will be here Tuesday afternoon. I will so enjoy seeing his as well.

I am making (have made) friend seasoned chicken for my boy and he will have some yellow rice as it could have been made in the Bayou. I can't wait to sample it. Takes quite a while to cook but the entire house smells so good! No begging from the four footed Queen of the House. She has neverasked for nor shown any interest whatsoever in human food.

I like my hair this short (well, it is to me, anyway) that from now on, it won't be allowed to get any longer. The middle of the back thing is so hot and inconvenient even though it can look pretty. Nonetheless, I would have to have someone see my hair and (me consequently) from behind and think it's a younger woman than I am. That happened once in church. Embarrassing. :-)

Oh, you all need to come on in. I swear, I outdid myself it all smells so good. We're having good ice cream for dessert too. The kind without all the additives and fillers in it. Costs more, but worth it. Hope I can control myself and have some left for the middle son when he gets here. It's an entire half of a gallon so really, I need to remember that when I decide again how good it tastes.

Rice is done. Better hurry because I have a feeling this will go fast. xxoo

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Hi..not sure whether or not we will get word today but if so, I will post again quickly as I hear.

Meanwhile it has been torrential rain. Again. I mentioned already that we have the entire years rainfall as of June. I went out with camera and the intent to shop for some food as well. It was an overcast day but not otherwise bad. Within 10 minutes or less I heard thunder and then, torrential rain. No pictures were taken and it was raining too hard to comfortably get inti the store and out what with all the walking to do and balancing food bags.

But here is one from yesterday if you would like to see it. It is a magnolia blossom.

Seems so strange not to be posting about Beth that I have no idea what to write of other than my middle son will be here Tuesday for several days. He is the one just back from New Zealand and Australia. My oldest will be here tomorrow evening leaving Monday morning. Having both boys even if it is separately is always a pleasure to my mother's soul.

See you later perhaps if I hear from Beth's sister. xo I compose a blog from information given over the phone from Beth's sister. I usually run for the keyboard right after I hang up. :-)

Friday, July 26, 2013

Beth's sister called to say Beth had a really bad day and morning especially. She had a lot of pain. Our prayers will and are upholding her. I had an urgent call to pray for her just about the time she was having her worst times this morning and I did so immediately. Let us pray that Beth will feel the Presence of Our Lord with her because He is, as the Holy Spirit, within her as she is a believer. He promised He will never leave us.

That was my prayer, largely for her comfort. Her sister told me that Beth did go to surgery to get the pins out and that she is still in recovery.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Oh what a pleasure to hear that Beth called her sister Rae this morning. She did! Called her on her own steam. She didn't sound quite the same. Well, she didn't sound at all like her usual voice Rae said but she did quite well. Just low pitched really. This was a joy to hear! She made the call her own self!

Beth was able to eat this morning which was another extremely happy moment for me when I learned she had! YES! They will be moving her to another part of the hospital some time today, so she'll be off the surgical floor I am assuming. Another wonderful thing to know.

The pins are now in place which is what the surgery was about yesterday...so that the radiation can be delivered exactly where it is supposed to be. Some lymph nodes were removed as per usual when it is surgery for cancer...adjacent lymph nodes are removed and examined.

She will have three days of radiation starting very soon and Beth will be told when or if there is any more to come when they make their determinations.

It's been wonderful meeting other friends of Beth. Thank you for coming over to my blog house and of course I will let you know whatever I hear as soon as I hear it.

xxooBeth's sister just emailed me that Beth herself called again and said that the doctor had just been to see her and that she would receive a CAT scan and one radiation treatment today and that she is likely to go home Saturday! Hallelujah!

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Beth's sister Rae called and those of you who follow Beth's blog know how close she and her sister are.

Rae said that Beth got through the surgery successfully. And they took out lymph nodes but no word as to how many. That is a precaution all cancer surgeons do. There will be a study by Pathology to determine their state and treatment will be determined on an assessment of the whole patient and all of the available data.

If I remember correctly she is still in recovery and will stay on the surgical floor tonight..not to a room. They put whatever is needed for her treatments into her throat area so as to facilitate treatment.

That is all at the present time, my friends. Her sister requests a lot of prayers and I do as well for our dearest friend Beth. I love her very much though we have not met; I know her heart.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

My friend Mary of Out My Front Door blog gave me the Leibster Award for those of us who have fewer than 200 followers. That is easily me. Not many bloggers know me. Katie Isabella and the Admiral know more folks than I do. :-) Thank you Mary. It is always a joy to visit you as I identify with many of the things that you share with us.

The Award acceptance says that I must give 11 random facts about myself. And I must answer 11 questions that Mary gave me. I am also supposed to nominate 11 people and make up 11 questions for them to answer but I really don't know many bloggers on the human blogging sites so I may not be able to do that. Most of my friends have well over the 200 followers. But I can do this first part :-) with 11 random facts about me.

One, I am an avid reader. I primarily love fact and something that will educate me. No..make that history. I almost never fail to enjoy reading and learning about world history or US history. All facets. I do love some fiction too, but I am not "into" crime" stuff. Leaves me cold.

Two, I am an animal advocate. Not only cats but all animals. We humans are their stewards. But few take that seriously and many are uncaring to the extreme, to say the least.

Three, I don't like television much at all these past eight or so years. The news either. I prefer to read the news rather than have to see television and hear horrible descriptions and close -ups of human or animal suffering over and over and over to the extreme. I, a committee of one, have decided that it is yellow journalism at its best!

Four, I get up early and not always by choice but because I am rousted out by a four legged one. But I am glad really as I like the first part of the day in which I can and do get so much done. Unfortunately, due to early rising I must go to bed early too. :-)

Five, I am a serious amateur photographer. I smile all Winter to myself when I think of the coming Spring and Summer when picture taking of the type I enjoy most, abounds.

Six, I am a cloud fancier. I have many pictures in my Flickr set of my fave formations..cirrus.

Seven, to follow along (I know, cheating in a way) with what Mary gave as answers, I must say that if I were forced to choose between salt and sugar, sweet tooth though I have, it would be salt.

Eight, One day when I woke and started opening the blinds throughout the house, I was brought to the sting of tears in the backs of my eyes seeing the sun rising at last out of my living room window after weeks and weeks of rain. What a welcome sight.

Nine, I am a serious coin collector.

Ten, I treasure friends and family.

Eleven, I am most content in the out of doors and with a camera in my hand, crawling in the bushes getting tick bit and skeeter drilled!

Now: Mary gave me 11 questions to answer:

Who is your favorite musician? Ravi ShankarWho is your favorite James Bond? Sean Connery.Which of the four Seasons do you love the most? Spring.Chocolate or Cheese? Chocolate every time. :-)Household chore you like least. Refrigerator cleaning.Do you prefer mystery novels or historical fiction? I LOVE historical fiction. Eugenia Price wrote the best, to my mind.

Is there a sport you adore? Yes, College football.

Which person in History would you most like to have a conversation with? What would you ask? Dead easy (no pun intended. My hero, Napoleon. I would ask what was he thinking to divorce Josephine though he loved her so much. But I would know the answer. Their marriage was childless and as Emperor he wanted an heir. Josephine's children would not do as they were hers and her first husband's children and not a direct descendant of Napoleon.

Ice cream or Cake for you? Terrible to make that decision. I may get addled as I love both! Cake? Maybe?

Thank you Mary, this was so much fun and I loved doing it. I appreciate the award. I didn't see it posted on your page so I can't post it here right now. I will find it and add it later, This was fun and you can all see how quiet and dull it is around here. xoxoxo

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Friends, Kitties, Woofies and Countrymen. Today I got to the Farmer's Market again but a bit late at 1000 instead of 0745! However I got my choosing of some Roma green beans, some red fingerling potatoes and one tomato.

I have already broken the green beans and they are in there cooking. The house is awash in their fragrance. Later when the beans start to get a bit more cooked, I will add the fingerling potatoes and cook it all together till the flavors marry. I know I get downright poetic about my very simple extremely mundane veggie acquisitions at the Farmer's Market but man, I just don't buy these type of things, fresh, often enough. I have taken the easy way out and relied on frozen veggies which are fine, of course. However fresh is like winning the lottery or how I imagine that would be. I never think to enter it so my chances of winning are pretty dim. BUT when I put fresh veggies in my mouth and they take that trip down down down the stomach tube..ahhhh...

Friday, July 12, 2013

I pan broiled a good sized chicken breast. I had some green beans and a bit of potato. That's it and oh, was it good.

To the dismay of my sons and some guests, including gentleman guests, alas, I am a plain food eater. That's how I cook too. Yes, I do season with salt, pepper and grilling spices, butter when called for, but that's about it. I never knew what a grilled veggie was until maybe 6 years ago..Oh...GOOD! Love that. So I "branched out" a quarter of an inch. Wait..I did do that delicious rosemary chicken with red potatoes and that was very seasoned with herbs. Bear in mind it was my Dad who taught me anything I know about cooking as he was the one who reared me and my brothers. I still have his favorite fork; an old OLD wooden handled stainless steel fork. Three tines of course although if there were a quiz question as to how many tines on a fork, I would have to pass it up. Wait. Four tines for a salad fork and three for a dinner fork! Right?

You saw my hair after I got it cut, didn't you? At least those on FB did for an hour or so. I found that it is SOOOOO much nicer looking after styling it than when it was half-way down my back. It looks good right away and stays decent without a lot of styling products because it isn't heavy as it was when it was so long. Man, it took forever to get it dry and that's not a lot of exaggeration, and now while my hair is still thick and it takes more time to dry than I would like, it isn't as long as before. The back of my hair is like cat fur it's so thick. I will put in a messed up picture if I can find it of how much shorter my hair is now. I won't leave it here but an hour. Even though I obscured it a little, it makes me a bit nervous as I still never know what's trawling the innerwebs swiping stuff and posting it who knows where. I deleted it. at 1953 hrs.

P.S. to those who asked, my boy will be home after another week for a total of 3 1/2 weeks I believe it is. He got to Auckland first in June, Australia next just for 3 or 4 days, New Zealand yet again with our friends to go on vacation with them (they are New Zealanders) to the South Island and on the way back to the U.S., he will go to Figi, layover in LA and then, back to NC.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

My middle son, the one who is a teacher, is in New Zealand (mostly) Australia and Figi. Here is his latest Face Book picture he posted that made me smile. I think he was in Te Anau at the time. He said it was a New Zealand traffic jam.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

I know I dreamed but I don't know what it was. That's good. I would hate to have part two of that last dream night before last.

Those blossoms above in the header are two little flowers I saw peeking at me from near a fence so I took their picture!

I got to work out today. Hope to do so Friday and therefore get two days in this week. I don't think I will get any more than that next week but ANY workout is better than NO workout. However when I don't get to work out it's for an excellent reason. So, I don't worry about it.

Got to visit a good friend yesterday and the two ancient beagles, Patrick is 20 years old and his poor hind quarters wobble pretty badly when he walks from spinal surgery he had. I can't remember the other beagles name just now. He's 18. They were two pretty good old dudes. I enjoyed them. My friend is baby sitting them these past two weeks and I think they will go back to their pawrents this weekend.

We went to a local attraction here in town that has been here forever and has a great reputation for their lunch counter. It's a drug store and compounding store combined and has a lunch counter in the next room. They make fantastic hamburgers I am told. I went there for the first time yesterday and had the best chicken salad in my memory! I do believe I will go back.

I saw some baked custard on Nellie's page and oh, if I could find glass custard dishes and a deep enough pan to set them in for the baking, I would do it. OH that looked SO good.

The cat haters are at it again. My cat's blog has the links. There is rampant cruelty to cats across the world and this sort of thing as well as the bird enthusiasts blasting and slamming a few months ago just gives the haters a "license" to kill, hurt or torture innocent feline animals.

On that horrible note I will quit here otherwise I could REALLY get going.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Twenty hundred and thirteen! July 8th, matter of fact. There I was sleeping the night away and "chirp". A good loud one. Just one. A warning from the smoke detector. I went back to sleep. Twenty minutes later, another loud chirp. OK. 0405. So I got up, turned on the hall light, fetched the step ladder and climbed up to take the battery out. Got back in bed. Fell asleep luckily, and a more distant chirp happened to wake me! WHAT? Can the danged thing's alarm telling that it's battery is low sound even when the battery is OUT of it? No of course not. So it had to be the carbon monoxide detector telling me that it's battery was low too.

So, I got up again at 0448, switched on the hall light and unfolded the ladder, got up again and removed the cursed thing! I took it's batteries out and went back to bed. Took a bit to fall asleep and when I did..bad dream city! I dreamed that I saw the cat get into some sort of bubblegum vending machine and couldn't get out. I was upset about that as I was in a public building I had never seen before and I couldn't think where I was. I kept thinking maybe a Federal Building. Can't imagine taking the cat anywhere except the vet so go figure!

There was a little boy about 8 years old with me. I knew him but I am not sure in what capacity. But he was with me and I was responsible for him. I took out my cell phone to call for help and as I was looking at it preparing to dial, it rang, and someone from an EOC called and kept calling me Officer Austin, Officer Austin? What? Huh? She thanked me for answering and said she would expect me at the Command Center shortly. I looked at the boy and the cat and the cat had managed to turn around and was mostly squeezed out of the vending machine. I segued into a large room somehow with a few people in it, and tried to ask where I was and for some help. Then I noticed the little boy was missing from my presence as was the cat AND that I had left my purse on the floor back where they were as I was trying to get the cat out of the vending machine. AND what's more, my passport was in it..about $180.00 as well as my credit cards. I asked some guard or police officer, whichever, to help me. I asked if all floors could be searched for the boy and my pocketbook and cat. He disappeared to return and from a distance of perhaps 20 feet over a counter or something, threw me a doughnut frosted with sprinkles and something else that I have forgotten now, to eat. No progress if it even started, on the boy and my purse.

Thank goodness at 0630, Katie jumped up and pounded on my sides making biscuits. I was GLAD to awaken.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

I wanted to get to the Farmer's Market this morning in time to get certain fruits that are always sold out after 0830 and I didn't. I got to scouring pet water and food dishes which led to other clean-ups that needed to be done and...I missed the boat. However, may as well make good of the time still here and I will start in on the bathroom very soon. Sigh. Thankless job. Well, except for the thank yous I give myself when I step into the sparkling shower/tub enclosure or enjoy the shine of the newly cleaned vanity and potty! Then I am thankful for the ability to do my home work here. I still remember how completely helpless I was two years ago when my wrist was broken (I still have never run on asphalt again..I am very VERY careful now) and my legs blackened with bruising and swollen like utility poles and pitch black along with cellulitis. THAT, cellulitis, is a skin inflammation requiring antibacterials I believe it was instead of antibiotics for weeks and being almost to the point of NOT being able to walk at all what with that condition and the traumatic injury to my legs. It is not fat accumumation.

After several months of paying a help place to come in for 3 hrs, 3 days a week..and sitting with ice all over my legs for 4 of those weeks, I will not complain about cleaning the house. I couldn't comb my very long hair or get it up onto the top of my head so as to be more comfortable. Nor could I shampoo it of course. Not only was my right wrist broken on the inside BUT my legs were totally bunged up too so I could scarcely stand. I had one of the paid folks shampoo my hair ONCE a week ( Oh, that was hard to get used to) and TRY to style it a little before putting it on top of my head out of the way.

I couldn't fix anything to eat and I lost so much weight. The boys brought all manner of food in but I couldn't open cans, (That took about 6 months) couldn't put it up for an electric can opener even if I had one...couldn't unwrap frozen entrees and besides, I lost my appetite...seriously. I got the women that showed up 3 times a week to open a can of soup and put it in a plastic container I could open and I would eat a piece of toast in the morning..nothing till 2 PM where I had a cup of soup carefully spooned up with my left hand and maybe more toast at night. Weight fell off in gobs. :-) So I am grateful to be able bodied since.

More than you needed to hear. :-))) Better stuff next time. Go figure why I wrote all of that.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Hey I guess we can take all the prettiness we can get for however long we can get it, right?

I have been busier than hen's teeth and that is liable to continue for another five months or so. But I get by with a little help from my friends. :-) I'm fine by the way. My health seems fine far as I know. Just busy. I didn't want to give a wrong impression. Except I have a dad blamed fever blister! WHY oh WHY do those things come along out of the clear blue sky (or rainy sky around here!). Of course the old adage holds true. IF (indeed) that's the worst thing that happens to you, count your blessings. Well, I do that every day anyway. :-)

Nothing much to say...just passing through. I have an appointment in one hour and I am ready to roll. Got my linen slacks on..close fitting (that is how they are styled..I don't have the larger hips or legs...so the trouser looks OK. Linen blouse..raspberry in color to go with the flax color of the trousers. Black sandals. Hey, as I said, ready to roll.

Thank you so very extra much for the comments on things I am grateful for. There are others..I just had mercy on those slogging through a long post. I loved seeing what YOU all are grateful for too. That is what inspired me.

Loving my new iPhone. I love the app that lets me hold it up to the music anywhere that I happen to be and it tells me who it is singing or what the music is and where to buy it if I wish. Like wizardry!

I love my bar code reader too. I have a new toy that makes me smile every day. I asked Siri what was better, cats or dogs and she said..."you know Carole, I don't feel very decisive today"! Now that was a diplomatic answer if I ever heard one. XXOO